HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND

Thom Andersen’s investigative cinema

We are pleased to announce the film series Hollywood and Beyond: Thom Andersen’s Investigative Cinema, which will occur at the Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP) on July 8th-17th. The series lineup contains a combination of 18 features and shorts (14 of which are receiving their Brazilian premières), and it celebrates the work of one of the most important contemporary American filmmakers along with artists connected to him. Andersen and his wife and collaborator Christine Chang will be in attendance during the series, which will feature an onstage conversation between him and the film programmer and archivist Remier Lion Rocha on July 14th.

Thom Andersen (born in 1943) has taught in the School of Film/Video at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in his home city of Los Angeles since 1987.

His film work consists of studies of the modern cinema’s origins, the American film industry’s politics, the Hollywood urban imaginary’s construction, and the state of simple contemporary urban spaces.

The series lineup contains 11 films directed by Andersen. Among them are his most celebrated film, Los Angeles Plays Itself — an analysis of the complex relationship between the city of Los Angeles and the Hollywood film industry — and his most recent feature, The Thoughts That Once We Had — a personal study of the film writings and ideas of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.

The lineup also contains seven additional films involving the participation of contemporary American artists who have collaborated with Andersen. The works of Adam R. Levine, Ross Lipman, Peter Bo Rappmund, and Billy Woodberry share many themes with those of Andersen, particularly cinema’s role in preserving the past.

Hollywood and Beyond: Thom Andersen’s Investigative Cinema has been sponsored by the Prefeitura de São Paulo/Secretaria Municipal de Cultura, the Centro Cultural São Paulo, and the Circuito Municipal de Cultura; programmed by Aaron Cutler and by Mariana Shellard; and produced by Anamauê Artes Visuais.